INC NEWS - Roxboro and Knox Streets followup

[bragin at nc.rr.com]

I'd like to thank all of you for your responses to the emails, letters,
and phone calls that you have received from residents of the Duke Park
neighborhood concerning the unsafe pedestrian crossing at Roxboro and
Knox Streets, at the entrance to Duke Park.

Below is a statement from Brandon Jones, Division Operations Engineer
for NCDOT, in response to an email from a community member about this
intersection, just now published on the Inter-Neighborhood Council list
serve.

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"Once our I-85 project is completed, pedestrians will
be able to cross Roxboro by walking via sidewalk to
the ramp area where they will be able to cross Roxboro
by way of a signalized crosswalk. This adds about
800-900' to get to Duke Park but is much safer than a
mid-block signalized crossing would be that would
allow you to go straight across Roxboro.

NCDOT does an excellent job seeking public citizen and
municipality input into our projects such as this one.
Public hearings are held well in advance of the
project (probably 8 years ago). At that time citizens
and the City of Durham were given the opportunity to
give input/requests in the project.

I hope you will find the finished product will serve
your neighborhood well.

Brandon Jones
Division Operations Engineer

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With all due respect to Mr. Jones, if he believes that children on
bicycles, parents carrying toddlers or pushing strollers, the elderly or
folks in wheelchairs, should be forced to add a football field length
trek, downhill and uphill, to cross 7 lanes of traffic, simply to go
from one side of the street to the other when the street is only 50 feet
wide, I have to question his qualification for his position.

Additionally, his comments about public hearings are an insult to all
members of the community. The current right hand turn lane was not a
part of the initial presentation to the community in the mid-90s. The
first drawings showing this widening of Roxboro St. were made available
to the Duke Park Neighborhood Association in the spring of 2001, and
DPNA immediately began a process of trying to have these plans altered,
in large measure due to concerns over pedestrian safety.

I trust that our elected and appointed officials will be able to help
Mr. Jones in his journey to understanding his responsibility to all
members of the community, not just to moving as many vehicles through
our neighborhoods as possible.

Sincerely,
Barry Ragin
1706 Shawnee St.